We went to the world premiere of the new Star Trek movie at the Sydney Opera House yesterday (though there were screenings around the world the day before already - feel cheated out of my premiere). And it was brilliant, as a Star Trek movie.
There's a 2 week media blackout (no more), so you won't see that much just yet, but hey, I paid (a lot) for my tickets, and I didn't sign anything.
The story itself is a bit thin, but it was just a lot of fun to see young versions of the original characters again, Bones was great, Scotty (Simon Pegg - Spaced) was brilliant. I was also looking forward to Spock, as I thought he was brilliantly casted, but I found his "Spockness" timing a bit off, while the real Spock (yes, there is time travel involved) was spot on of course. Kirk was actually better than what I expected after watching the trailer. And Aussie Bana (unrecognisable) was badass, as were the ILM special effects.
JJ Abrams did a great job on reviving the Star Trek franchise, not an easy task. It remains to be seen what the legion of Trekkies think, but up till now all reviews seem to be positive (on Twitter for example). Getting a standing ovation at the end must have come as a big relief to him. I'm already looking forward to more adventures of the new crew.
The Opera House of course isn't a cinema, so they brought in the people who actually mixed the movie sounds, to do the sound in the main concert hall, and it was fabulous (Dolby, no THX). As was the projection (using a Barco projector, which, I like to point out, is a Belgian company!) JJ Abrams was present, as were most of the main characters (except Nimoy and Pegg unfortunately), who all got introduced at the beginning. At that point it was nice to sit on the second row. Once the movie started though, sitting 6 meters from the screen isn't practical. Paying a lot for tickets, I was hoping to get decent seats. It seems the sponsored seating (for contest winners or PR) were a lot better at the back, while I feel they should have been given these front rows. But I will definitely go watch it again (probably in a Gold Class cinema, that's one with plush seats and food).
For a Star Trek movie, I'd give it a 9 out of 10, seriously. Go watch it next month!
You don't agree? More reviews of peeps on the red carpet:
PS: "A new beginning..." yes, I know my scifi... 'nuff said
I have a 2 year old Macbook Pro for sale on eBay:
It is a April 2007 Macbook Pro in great condition.
It got replaced
with a new unibody Macbook Pro, so it's looking for a new home.
It's a non-glossy one, which I definitely miss on the new one!
I mainly used it as a desktop and only carried it around occasionally to a conference or workshop.
Comes
with original OSX (Tiger) and iLife06 DVDs, and with OSX Leopard
installed and on DVD. Comes with original box, original MagSafe power
adapter, remote and dvi-to-vga adapter.
Details:
2.16Ghz Core 2 Duo
4Gb (2x2) installed (3.25 accessible)
120Gb hdd
15.4-inch 1440x900 - non-glossy
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 128MB GDDR SDRAM
6x SuperDrive
1x FireWire 400, 1x FireWire 800, 2x USB 2, ExpressCard
DVI (DVI to VGA adapter included)
10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet
Airport Extreme (b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
Backlit keyboard
Model No: A1211
I prefer pick in North Sydney, or we meet up in Sydney CBD.
We went to see the Watchmen movie yesterday. Unfortunately they were no longer showing it at imax. But we did the Gold Class (George street) experience in stead, which is "different":
- very nice seats (so comfy that there was actually someone snoring...),
- it's nice to have a bottle of wine,
- the food was nice, though expensive,
- but eating in a dark theatre isn't really practical
- and in quiet parts, you could actually hear the projector, which isn't too good.
Thoroughly enjoyed Watchmen, though it is pretty long.